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Late Bloomer-The Roses

At this late date I'm not going to attempt to make this an 'official' Bloomday post. Instead I have been taking the odd rose shot as time permits this month . This morning I was up early getting a few more photos and a camera malfunction (which turned out to be operator error) obliterated my shots. So I'm going with what I've got !

At one time I had over 70 roses in my garden. I collected them and when I wanted another I ripped out whatever I had to to make room. My collection has been edited for various reasons; duplicates, disease, and modern roses that sometimes decline or sucker so heavily that Dr Huey takes over.I think I am down to about 30. Last year I considered removing one (Honey Perfume) that had become so attractive to rose curculio that most of the blooms were ruined. I gave it one more year and used a very draconian method of control that involved sacrificing an entire spring bloom flush. It seems to have worked.I haven't planted a new rose in several years, but I want Lady Hillingdon desperately so am strategizing a location. Here then are a few that have made the cut.

Golden Celebration is an David Austin rose with a buttery yellow petal packed flower. Though classified as a shrub ,it grows quite large in the Norcal climate and should definitely not be considered for the 'front row' of the border.

A few shots here of the 1909 hybrid 'Gruss an Aauchen' , in some camps alleged to be the 1st floribunda. I love this rose so much that I tolerate the horrible rust and blackspot that comes on in spring, and spend the time to strip off the bad foliage and cut it back hard for a summer re-bloom.

This is the David Austin rose 'Molineux.' It never stops blooming, it never gets diseased, and the only negative can think of is that it only holds up a couple days in a vase.

'Brass Band' is a Jackson Perkins floribunda from 1993. Cast iron.

Jean Giono is a Romantica rose ,the French house of Medillands' answer to the David Austin roses. Sometimes you will see it classified as a Hybrid Tea, sometimes as a shrub rose. The vein-y petals are my favorite feature.

'Prospero' another excellent David Austin selection, but good luck finding it. It was hard to locate when I bought it way back in the 90' when roses were more popular and rose nurseries were plentiful.

Lets finish up with 'Eden' aka 'Pierre Ronsard' the worst rose for disease (primarily blackspot) in my garden. It has received an annual stay of execution consistently for years-there is just nothing quite like it and so it stays. See this post for more diva shots.

Comments

Jean Giono is a real beauty and never seen it before. The orange/apricot roses are my favourite I have to admit and love the veiny petals on this one. It will be another month at least before we see roses here :(

Love that ruffly, almost peony-like bloom of Prospero. Back in the Austin heyday my best red was Othello. What a scent. With Geranium 'Mavis Simpson' winding through his legs and clumps of blue oat grass. Thanks for the memories! And I still can't believe you stole all our rain...

I never had Othello denise, though a friend in Huntington Beach did and I was always a little jealous-though it did get gargantuan as DA's are apt to do in Calif. My other Austin red is The Squire, which is a true scarlet red, with a million petals and not many blooms. I can't apologize for stealing the rain-our totals were normal this year (at last) so it was no El Nino here either. Normal for us is 25 to 30 inches. What a bust the thing was for you ! After all the dire 'Godzilla' predictions we got normal --did you even get normal ? 10 to 12 as I recall ?

Beautiful, beautiful roses--and your photos are so good. We have multiple roses in common--Brass Band is also outstanding for me, and Gruss, tho I have the pink version only, GC, Molineux and Prospero, my experience is the same as yours. Eden I dug up and threw out because the Rust was the worst, beyond bad. The ground around it would be bright orange. But I enjoy it in your photo. Thanks for the rose post!

Thank you Hoov, and I love your rose photos too. It's fun to see different bloggers photo styles with the same plants or in the same garden,and how different the light can be a few hundred miles distant. I can't bear to dig up Eden even though she is a mess from may to September.

I love 'Golden Celebration' and I've always wanted to try 'Gruss an Aauchen' as I remember reading it could tolerate a bit of shade. It must have been painful to cut your roses down by more than half. I truly love roses but, in light of the drought, have been reluctant to add any to this garden. (Okay, I've added two in the 5 years we've been here but one replaced a 'Sterling Silver' inherited with the house, which suddenly upped and died.) The roses that came with the house wouldn't be ones I'd have chosen for myself for the most part but I do love 'Medallion' and the lavender-pink variety I've never been able to pin a name on.

Getting rid of Sterling Silver was a good call Kris--that rose is horrid in my opinion. In fact the only lavender that I like is the floribunda 'Angel Face'. My roses get water once a week usulally starting in and if they can't get along with that--oh well ! I used to water them twice a week in July and August, but no more. Instead I do an August prune and they sink or swim.

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